A Sleeping Chateau, Untouched since the Revolution, is For Sale

We held our breath as its story unfolded. That of a curious, half-moon shaped castle unlike any other we’d seen before, tucked away in the quiet warmth of Bordeaux’s countryside. Something in our gut told us that this castle, of the many we’ve fallen for, was to be different from the rest – and we…

How One Woman’s Lock of Hair could Become the World’s Most Precious Diamond

Like us, you might have assumed that a perfect diamond can only come from deep under the Earth’s crust, made from molten rock and metals, consisting of pure carbon which has been subject to immense and temperature for millions of years. But here’s a fun fact: hair and diamonds are both made out of carbon. And with…

When Vegetarians were considered so Radical, they only Belonged in Isolated Utopian Communes

No kings. No priests. No aristocracies. Only a society whose residents believed they should “grow together — not by competition, but by united action.” It may sound like a Bob Dylan lyric, but it’s a 104-yr-old excerpt from Herland, the science fiction novel by suffragist Charlotte Perkins Gillman in which a money free, farming heavy,…

She’s the 1970s Platinum-Selling Transgender Artist We’d Never Heard Of

It’s 1989 and Wendy Carlos is giving in an interview to the BBC surrounded by her electronic synthesizers and her Siamese cats. The Grammy-award winning composer and pioneer of electronic music is entirely in her element, giving a demonstration of the first commercially available keyboard instrument that she helped develop with Robert Moog. No one…

Meet the Woman Who Just Crashed the Chanel Runway

Well, that’s one hell of a way to end Paris Fashion Week! The Spring-Summer 2020 shows went out with quite a bang this year when a mystery woman seamlessly stormed the Chanel catwalk. At first, it looked like a pre-planned twist – the woman was decked out in tweedy garments and a Coco-worthy hat, after…

Get Back to Nature this Fall at these Airbnb Fairy Compounds

There’s no return from the orbit of SunRay Kelley. Not that we’d ever want to leave the little compound he’s built in Washington state; it’s a wonderland of moss covered fairy houses and sparkling waterways, wood shingled roofs and Hobbit-sized windows that started welcoming visitors long before the days of quirky Airbnbs. “SunRay Shire,” as…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLXXI)

1. Autumn Perfection in a Photograph Is there anyone that captures fall in America better than Kiel James Patrick? Ugh. 2. The Highland by Incredible Tiny Homes More photos here. 3. Italian Clam Shell Chairs Italian Venetian Grotto Clam Shell Chairs fit for a mermaid, made in the 19th century and for sale at $7,250 USD. Found…

The Lost Art of Decorating with Shells

In Margate, on the south-east coast of England, there is an underground grotto lined with majestic mosaics made entirely of seashells – and no-one knows how it got there. The site was discovered in 1835 by a father and son who were attempting to dig a duck pond. The story goes that the young boy…

Elaborate Cabinets that may contain Portals to Narnia

Is there anything more voyeuristically delish than seeing where rich people put their money? We’re not just talking beautiful cars and eccentric homes (though we love that, of course). We’re talking about the trappings of truly next level wealth; of the moment when something as simple as a cabinet is transformed into a work of…

Inside the Secret Parisian Warehouse where the French Presidents Go Furniture Shopping

Picture an IKEA warehouse – but make it chic – and add an inventory of priceless furniture, textiles and objects that date as far back as the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV, who indisputably raised the bar on what we’ll call French ‘power decorating’ for centuries to come. A sprawling Art Deco reinforced…